Category Archives: politics

Local Community Radio

Hannah Sassaman at the Prometheus Radio Project sent this email out and asked that it be forwarded widely. I’ve tidied up the links to post it, so any that are messed up are my fault, not hers. Now you can escape the heat this weekend and learn all about community radio (and maybe take some action while you’re at it).

Dear Supporters of [tag]Community Radio[/tag]:

Greetings from the [tag]Prometheus Radio Project[/tag]! It’s a big week for Senate Bill 1675 and House Bill 2802, the Local Community Radio Act of 2007,
and the fight to expand [tag]low power FM radio[/tag]! Many of you have called or met with your legislators, or are getting ready to do so, and to ask them to cosponsor a bill to bring community radio to the whole USA. Because of the noise we are making around the country – demanding new, local, low power FM radio station licenses in our cities and smaller communities – important media sources are covering the issue, and spreading the word that the time is now to expand low power FM.

[tag]Bill Moyers[/tag], who has covered the impact of media consolidation and a lack of accountable local voices on American communities for years, is broadcasting a special on low power FM and media tonight, August 24th!

Stay tuned for news and analysis from the FCC, from journalist [tag]Rick Karr[/tag], and from your allies here at the Prometheus Radio Project. Watch a summary of the special on media issues here – and watch a clip of the LPFM segment here – and forward to your friends, so they can become as passionate as you are about low power FM radio, and work with you to get your legislators to cosponsor the Local Community Radio Act of 2007.

Not only is low power FM radio taking to national TV – but also – the paper of record of middle Tennessee – the Tennessean –
has just written a huge editorial about low power FM – asking Tennessee Congressmembers to work to expand it!

“Now is the time to act,” say the editors of the Tennessean. They continue, “Since the airwaves belong to the public, it follows that the airwaves should reflect all aspects of the public. This bill would go a long way toward that goal, and deserves full support.”

This article was paired with other great editorials from Free Press, and from strong low power FM leaders, WRFN-LP, Pasquo, Tennessee!

We have to take advantage of this momentum. Write your Congressmember now to tell them how important low power FM radio is to you — and tell them to cosponsor House Bill 2802 — the Local Community Radio Act of 2007 — which would expand low power FM all across Tennessee and beyond!

You can read [House Bill 2802] here.

Our friends at Consumers’ Union have set up a great webtool that can help you write a letter today.

Or write a letter or make a call through our allies at Free Press.

Get background on low power FM at The Prometheus Radio Project.

Thanks for calling your Congressmembers, and sending this note far and wide! Stay tuned for more updates on this battle in the next weeks — as we work together to expand low power FM to communities nationwide!

Hannah Sassaman
Prometheus Radio Project

P.P.S. Read the articles that appeared in today’s Tennessean in support
of [tag]LPFM[/tag]:

Editorial: Legislation would restore radio’s community presence

Ginny Welsch: Local issues shouldn’t be shut out in process

Joseph Torres: Congress should help unique local stations

Sorry this probably isn’t being posted in time for you to catch Bill Moyers, I’ve got the flu or the plague or something and am not really playing with a full deck right now.

Beware the Quakers. First, they lull you into submission with their oats…

The [tag]ACLU[/tag] has an extensive section on their website dedicated to [tag]domestic spying[/tag]. The whole situation is deeply troubling and I don’t wish to make light of it, but something in an October press release caught my eye:

Also included in the documents is information on a series of protests mistakenly identified as taking place in Springfield, Illinois (the protests actually occurred in Springfield, Massachusetts). According to the document, “Source received an e-mail from the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), e-mail address: [REDACTED] that stated that on March 18-20, a series of protest actions were planned in the Springfield, IL area… to focus on actions at military recruitment offices with the goals to include: raising awareness, education, visibility in community, visibility to recruiters as part of a national day of action.”

The people tasked with protecting the homeland can’t tell the difference between Springfield, Illinois and Springfield, Massachusetts?

Nevertheless, the more I think about it the more I think that maybe they’re barking up the right tree after all. After all, Sidwell Friends is considered the premier [tag]Quaker[/tag] school. A fair number of our friends there and look how well they turned out.

And how about some of Sidwell’s most prominent alums: Tricia and Julie Nixon? Nancy Reagan? Valerie Rusmfeld? I hope someone checked them for Quaker-implanted mind control devices. You can’t be too careful, from the looks of the FOIA documents the ACLU has posted.

In the months this post has marinated in my draft-file, I’ve thought more about the issue. And thinking about what a dedicated and committed Quaker [tag]Richard Nixon[/tag] was, I’m wondering if maybe they weren’t watching the Quakers closely enough…

No, that’s wrong. I’m kidding. Aren’t I? I think so. Yes. Definitely kidding.

You can search the ACLU site for more about domestic wiretapping, spying and Quakers, they’ve posted a considerable number of documents, statements, and testimony transcripts since I started this post (last October).

Stop the madness!

I may be married to someone who feeds like a tick on the Sunday morning political gabfests, but I, personally, am already totally over the ’08 Presidential campaign. Yup, I’m in trouble.

We need an extra gigantic “no trespassing and no soliciting sign” now (a pair of rowdy Rottie’s not being deterent enough).

Poor Husband is treated, daily, sometimes hourly, to my tirades about how most of these people (I’m looking at you Clinton and Obama) have jobs to do and they need to cut the crap and get back to the work of governing, which the voters asked them to do and which my taxes pay them to do. We aren’t paying you to sit on your thumbs and play around with youtube all day, damnit. Do your fucking jobs and do something about the current administration. Now.

But I digress…

And when the bright-eyed and bushy tailed young campaign workers aren’t banging on the door, the phone is ringing. And polls and political campaigns are apparently exempt from the Do Not Call list, as they are under the dominion of Satan instead of the FTC. (Let’s not parse those differences right now, I’m on my first cup of coffee). In fact, we’ve had 2 calls already today. Hooray for caller-ID, but it’s still annoying to have to turn the housephone ringers off from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. every day to get any work done.

They don’t even have meaningful questions yet. It’s too damned early for this!

“Will you be old enough to vote in ’08?”
“How would you rate the President’s success in the War on Terror?”
“Candidate X needs your help to win against the forces of tyranny and Hillary. Would you like to give money to Candidate X?”
“If the election were held today…”
“Freedom. Love it or hate it?”
“Which debate format spoke to your needs as a voter?”
“Would you rather vote for Mitt Romney or have hot coals placed in your eye sockets?”
etc.
etc.
etc.

Tell me again why I live so close to the Capitol I can see the dome lit up at night? It’s obviously not healthy.

Pain Management

[tag]The International Anesthesia Research Society[/tag]’s most recent issue of Anesthesia and Analgesia contains a lengthy and (at least on first read) thorough piece,“[tag]Pain Management[/tag]: A Fundamental Human Right” by Frank Brennan, Daniel B. Carr, and Michael Cousins.

It’s interesting (but sad) how many people seem to believe that doctors in the U.S. will prescribe any drug at the drop of a hat, and that political pressure on medical care is exerted only on reproductive health issues and stem cell research. A visit to the Pain Relief Network demonstrates that this perception really couldn’t be further from the truth.

Links via MetaFilter.

Bill O’Reilly

The O’Reilly Factor, as you well know, used to be one of my favorite sitcoms. It also more often than not made me completely psychotic so I haven’t watched it in months. Sadly, and it seems I’ve really been missing out on The Important News.

A report on the Southern Poverty Law Center’s site about O’Reilly’s recent hysteria over lesbian gangs is mind-bending, even by O’Reilly standards.

“The Oh-Really Factor: Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly offers up an ‘expert’ to claim that pink pistol-packing lesbian gangs are terrorizing the nation,” by Susy Buchanan and David Holthouse, examines a June 21 segment in which O’Reilly and an “expert” talked about the growing lesbian gang menace, including the alleged 150 violent lesbian gangs in the DC area.

A “national underground network” of pink pistol-packing lesbians is terrorizing America. “All across the country,” they are raping young girls, attacking heterosexual males at random, and forcibly indoctrinating children as young as 10 into the homosexual lifestyle, according to a shocking June 21 segment on the popular Fox News Channel program, “The O’Reilly Factor.”

It’s a lengthy and serious piece and I feel sort of guilty quoting the silly part at the end, but how can I resist? It’s just too great:

And then there are the pink Glocks.

There have been no media reports at all of lesbian gangs committing violence while armed with pink-painted 9-millimeter pistols or calling themselves, as Wheeler colorfully described it, “the pink pistol-packing group.” Several law enforcement officers contacted by the Report found the idea laughable. There is, however, a well-known national organization of gay and lesbian firearms owners called the Pink Pistols. This group has never been implicated in any gang activity. Asked by the Intelligence Report if he’d perhaps confused the Pink Pistols with a criminal organization, Wheeler denied it. “I wasn’t referring to their pink pistols,” Wheeler said. “These [lesbian] crews, these gangs, they buy a Glock 9-millimeter and you can paint them pink.”

Pink Pistols spokesperson Gwen Patton said the pistols the group’s members carry are, by and large, not actually colored pink. The Pink Pistols are now demanding an on-air apology from Wheeler, O’Reilly and Fox News.

“A lot of people are confusing these imaginary, lesbian, gun-carrying gangs with our organization,” said Patton. “We would appreciate it if Mr. O’Reilly would invite Mr. Wheeler back onto his show to clear up this nonsense in the same arena it started — on national TV.”

[Go read the entire article]

The sad part is, he can get away with this sort of nonsense because people are still all too willing to buy into stereotypes and let their prejudices warp any possible critical thinking skills they might possess.

If you don’t have the Southern Poverty Law Center’s excellent website bookmarked, now’s a good time to fix that.